Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian President Confronting West, Dies at 63

He was seen as a favorite to succeed Supreme Leader Khamenei
He put all institutions, power in the hands of hardliners

WATCH: Paul Wallace reports on the deaths of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in a helicopter crash.Source: Bloomberg

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By Golnar Motevalli and Sylvia Westall

May 20, 2024 at 4:05 AM UTC

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Ebrahim Raisi, the ultraconservative cleric whose tenure as Iran’s president was marked by a mass uprising and an increasingly hawkish stance toward the West, has died after a helicopter crash. He was 63.

The president’s helicopter went down Sunday in the northwest of the country, state media said. His death, along with that of Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian who was traveling with him, was confirmed Monday by the semi-official Mehr news agency.